Schools lack alarms to warn of deadly carbon monoxide

Dec. 5, 2012
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A carbon monoxide alarm manufactured by Kidde. / AP

by Gary Stoller, USA TODAY

by Gary Stoller, USA TODAY

Most schools - like the Atlanta elementary school where at least 49 people were treated Monday for carbon monoxide poisoning - are not equipped with alarms to detect the deadly gas.

Only Connecticut and Maryland have laws that require CO alarms in schools, despite the evacuations of more than 3,000 students in at least 19 incidents of high levels of CO at schools since 2007, USA TODAY has found.

Many school administrators say they're unaware of the dangers. But doctors with expertise in carbon monoxide poisoning say the alarms - which the National Fire Protection Association says should be near bedrooms in every home - should be installed in classrooms or hallways.

"The safest solution is CO monitoring in every classroom or, minimally in the hallways and pool areas," says Lindell Weaver, a University of Utah professor of medicine who's written studies on the subject and evaluated more than 1,000 patients with CO poisoning.

Often called "the silent killer," carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless and tasteless toxic gas produced by incomplete combustion in fuel-burning devices such as furnaces, boilers and heaters for water and swimming pools.

There are no complete statistics of how many people are evacuated or treated in CO incidents annually. A 2012 report by the National Fire Protection Association says 81,100 non-fire CO incidents were reported to U.S. fire departments in 2010, and more than 90% occurred in homes or apartments.

USA TODAY's analysis of news media accounts shows at least 244 children and staff this year and last were hospitalized or treated for CO poisoning in nine incidents of high levels of CO gas in schools. More than 2,000 people were evacuated in the incidents.

Combining that data with similar 2007-2010 data provided by Neil Hampson, a Seattle doctor and carbon monoxide expert, at least 349 children and staff were treated for CO poisoning - and at least 3,000 were evacuated - in 19 incidents since 2007.

Among the reported incidents:

About 550 people were evacuated Monday, including children carried to ambulances with oxygen masks over their faces, at Finch Elementary School in southwest Atlanta. At least 49 people were hospitalized, and firefighters found an extremely high, potentially deadly, level of CO near a furnace at the school, which wasn't equipped with a CO alarm.

About 25 children were hospitalized in November when a faulty boiler caused a carbon monoxide leak at an elementary school on the South Side of Chicago.

More than 500 students were evacuated and 53 taken to hospitals in October after fumes from a faulty generator entered a Philadelphia elementary school.

Most school buildings do not have CO alarms, say Steve Berlin Sr., a spokesman for the National Association of State Boards of Education, and Claire Barnett, executive director of the non-profit safety advocacy group Healthy Schools Network.

Berlin says installation of alarms and CO poisoning in school are "not something we have looked at."

"I would never diminish the seriousness of this, but we deal with a great number of issues that deal with the safety of students," Berlin says. "It's hard to stop what we are doing and go full steam on something else right away."

Theresa Daem, executive director of the National Association of School Superintendents, says her organization was unaware of CO issues. "To my knowledge, it's not been on our radar," she says.

Daem says there may be an urgency now to discuss CO issues and she plans to talk to the association's executive committee about them.

Barnett says all schools should install CO alarms. No federal or state agencies have jurisdiction over maintaining healthy environment in schools unless there is a perceived threat or risk to school employees, she says.

The laws in the only two states requiring CO alarms in schools - Connecticut and Maryland - read differently, according to Doug Farquhar, program director of environmental health for the National Conference of State Legislatures.

In Connecticut, where 32 people were reportedly hospitalized after a CO incident at a school in Waterbury last year, state law requires all public and non-public schools to be equipped with CO detectors.

In Maryland, where a Southwest Baltimore elementary/middle school was shut down twice in a week last year for a CO leak, state law requires CO detectors in newly constructed or remodeled public schools.

Though they may not be required by state or local laws, many universities have taken their own initiatives and installed CO alarms in student housing.

Princeton University, for example, warns students on its website not to remove or relocate a carbon monoxide monitor.

"If the monitor is missing or damaged by the tenant, the tenant will be responsible for the replacement cost of the monitor," the university's housing office states. "If the monitor is left unplugged, the tenant may be fined."

USA TODAY's analysis of media accounts shows at least five incidents of CO evacuations at universities since 2009.

Three of the incidents were at the same dormitory at the University of Denver, including two in October 2012.

In the most recent incident, several hundred students at the university were evacuated from Nelson Hall at 3:30 a.m. on Oct. 26 and were not allowed to return for nearly six hours after a CO alarm sounded. Two students complained of nausea.

Daily College Life.com, a website produced by Denver University journalism students, reported last month that the CO alarms were installed at the university after a 23-year-old graduate student was killed by CO poisoning in an off-campus apartment in 2009.